The present invention relates to packaging, and particularly to a packaging system capable of protecting fully-baked pastry shells from the rigors normally associated with commercial shipping and distribution.
The availability of pre-prepared, fully-baked pastry shells, such as pie shells, for consumer purchase or for use by restaurants or food services, provides increased convenience in the preparation of desserts and main meal portions employing them. To be effective substitutes for freshly-prepared pastry shells, these pre-prepared products must exhibit the desirable attributes of their fresh-baked counterparts.
Notable among these attributes is the characteristic flaky, delicate texture of pastry shells. Attainment of this property in pastry shells intended to be purchased or used some time after manufacture is a difficult task in itself, since steps taken to confer this storage-stable texture cannot be at the expense of attainment of other necessary properties such as flavor. More importantly, however, all efforts to prepare shelf-stable pastry shells exhibiting fresh-baked texture and flavor will simply be for naught unless suitable means exist for shipping the extremely fragile pastry shells from the point of manufacture to the point of intended use or purchase. Formula and process variations designed to make the pastry shell itself more capable of withstanding the rigors of commercial handling and shipping generally are counterproductive since these variations are at the expense of attainment of the desired, delicate texture.
The provision of commercial shipping containers for fragile pastry shells must be achievable at reasonable costs and the containers must be sufficiently uncomplicated so as not to make unpackaging of the shells by employees at the point of use or purchase and/or by the ultimate consumer unreasonably difficult.
According to one prior art attempt to package pie crusts, Griffith et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 3,407,079 packages graham cracker crusts, uncooked pie dough, or other prepared or partially prepared pastry products by packaging the individual crusts, maintained within metal baking pans, one on top of another, and holding a stack of crusts within a packaging receptacle which prevents movement of the stack within the receptacle. Compression of the individual crusts within the stack requires that the pans and the crusts retain sufficient resilience or spring so that they exert a counter thrust against the bottom and cover of the receptacle to assure that looseness will not develop after the package is completed. Packaging fully-baked pie or other pastry crusts in the nested relationship under compression as disclosed by Griffith et al. would lead to unacceptably high levels of breakage caused by the packaging alone.
Another means for packaging pie crusts is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,379,536 to Foss, et al., wherein individual unbaked crusts, maintained in baking pans, are stacked or nested. The uppermost pie pan is fitted with a rigid retainer or cover member conforming to the shape of the pie pan and crust and having a flanged skirt which overlies the peripheral edges of the flanges of all the pie pans in the stack. The assembled stack is then provided with a plastic overwrap loosely enclosing the cover member. The packaging system of Foss, et al. is not suitable, however, for packaging fully-baked pastry shells.
According to another prior art attempt at providing the convenience of formed pastry products at home, Munter et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 4,265,919 describe a frozen, pre-prepared shell packaged along with a food material containing a normally-liquid component. The shell is positioned over a centrally-depressed receptacle containing normally-liquid material by means of an outwardly and downwardly extending rim around the receptacle. As distributed, the pastry shell and the normally liquid material are frozen. To prepare the products for consumption, the combined package is heated to liquify the ingredients of the filling material, and the package is then inverted to permit the liquid ingredients to fill the pastry shell for final baking. While products of this type may offer a degree of convenience, they do not solve the basic problem of providing a simple and effective packaging system for protecting fully-baked pie crusts, not packaged with a filling material, against the repeated impacts and shocks under varying ambient conditions which are typical of commercial handling and distribution.
In my earlier application Ser. No. 344,290, now scheduled for issuance as U.S. Pat. No. 4,399,157 on Aug. 16, 1983, I describe a packaging system for protecting the freshness and structural integrity of fully-baked pastry shells during shipping and storage. The packaging system consists of placing individual fully-baked pastry shells, held in conforming baking pans, in individual paperboard cartons. At least one stack of cartons is then enclosed by a bag comprised of high polymer film, and shock absorbing material then positioned to totally surround the bagged carton stack. Finally, a corrugated shipping container is employed to enclose the shock absorbing material, the bag and the cartons.
The packaging system of my application Ser. No. 344,290 is an effective means for providing fully-baked pastry shells in individual, point of sale packages, which packages do not themselves necessarily have to be constructed so as to withstand the rigors of commercial handling and shipping. However, efforts have continued to still further reduce the cost of the overall packaging system without loss of the primary function of protecting the freshness and structural integrity of the fragile, fully-baked pastry shells in a manner not inconsistent with point-of-sale or point-of-use distribution of individual pastry shells.